Brexit would free Spain to take ‘quite negative’ steps at border – report
A UK exit from the European Union would enable Spain to impose ‘quite negative’ restrictions on Gibraltarians who reside in Spain and tough controls at the border, even to the point it could be legally closed.
That is the stark analysis of a Spanish professor in international law and relations who prepared a report on post-Brexit scenarios for the Madrid-based think tank, Real Instituto Elcano.
The assessment, published this week, echoes the words of Spain’s acting Foreign Minister, José Manuel García-Margallo, who last Thursday said a Brexit would make it “perfectly possible” in law for Spain to shut the border.
In sketching out a view of the legal position for Gibraltar outside the EU, Araceli Mangas Martín, from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, stressed that Spain wanted the UK to remain in the bloc and that there was nothing to gain from closing the border.
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